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MIT Fiction Writing Professor Confronts Students Over AI-Generated Stories
A professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has taught fiction writing since 2017 detected that two students submitted AI-generated work for a workshop. The students confessed their reasons during class, leading to a discussion about the value of the writing process.
May 10, 9:00 AM·3m read1 source
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Most students enter the class with limited prior experience, often having last written fiction in middle school and rarely having participated in a formal workshop. At the beginning of each semester the instructor provides guidelines for both writers and readers.
These direct participants to read each story at least twice, mark effective and ineffective elements, and respond with a signed letter offering honest opinions based on close reading. The instructor noted that workshops often focus on why a story does not succeed because producing effective fiction is difficult.
This is especially true for students from STEM backgrounds who are accustomed to quantitative problems that have clear right answers and defined methods.
Fiction writing requires a different approach. Good writing produces a positive reading experience while bad writing does not. An effective workshop treats qualitative judgments as if they were supported by textual evidence, which can be challenging for students unused to such ambiguity.
The professor stated that the act of confronting criticism serves as part of the education. Writing functions as both a vehicle and vessel for thinking, turning abstract feelings into concrete words. Criticism of the work therefore touches on both aesthetic choices and the writer's ability to communicate personal feelings.
Before the availability of AI tools, writers seeking to protect their egos from such criticism typically had to hire ghostwriters or engage in plagiarism. AI has altered that dynamic by making it easier to generate text without personal effort. The instructor described AI-generated prose as perfectly mediocre.
It produces an inert gloss resembling an amalgam of workshopped writing but lacks connection to any specific human experience. The result is described as simulacra of thought generated through pattern recognition rather than lived insight. By contrast, student-written fiction is often flawed in ways that reflect an active struggle between intended meaning and expression.
